As I landed in New York I was very excited to peek the skyline again. As the taxi dropped me off this feeling washed over my entire body that is hard to describe. The city breathes ambition. A thought that has been rattling in my brain for years intensified: ‘I’ve got to play bigger’.
Later that week in the back of a taxi back from Harlem to my hotel in Midtown the taxi driver asked me: ‘What’s different about America for you?’. And without hesitation I said: ‘ambition’. I proceeded to tell him a story of the work event I attended the day before. There I was a fly-on-the-wall in watching two founders intensely encourage each other to ‘start something new’. Fist bumps and encouragement abound. As we neared the hotel he said to me ‘Man—I just got goosebumps hearing that’. I got this sense that he too was working on something big.
As of late I’ve been meditating a lot on the word ‘winning’. This came to a fever pitch recently when I stumbled on the Silicon Valley adage that ‘Pessimists sound smart, optimists make money’. As someone with a tendency—maybe even a pride—of my own cynisicm this quote jolted me to build mental safeguards to protect myself against this creeping mental affliction. Cynicism is a readily-available drug that you can easily intoxicate yourself on. Cynicism is an easy story to tell yourself when things don’t go your way—and you are the easiest person to fool.
It truly was a surreal interaction I spoke of to the taxi driver. Whilst at the event I was a fly-on-the-wall to the most incredible conversation of the kind I’ve never seen in the UK. As someone who grew up in an small town, ambition and a tolerance to risk-taking of this kind is not easy to come by—let alone applauded. The role models I remember had backstories of significant wealth, or of great luck and timing. This moral story of ‘success in sheer perseverance’ was not one that I remember as a strong story that emerged from my own childhood. It was one I sought out.
That exposure to ‘a will to win’ can open up your imagination and drive you. I’ll close on this final story. When I was 14 I orded an instructional DVD from an inspirational artist to me. There, sat on my living room carpet opening the box a letter dropped out that would become a guiding text that I would not only metaphorically, but literally carry with me for the rest of my life. “As you know, nothing worth anything in life comes easy, so stay committed and continue to search for new inspirations. See you on the road.” I sat there wondering what life would have in store for me. What would I need to stay committed to? I didn’t know then. I have a much better idea now.